Publisher pulls Herman Mashaba's book from shelves over breach of trust

The publisher of ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba's autobiography, Jonathan Ball Publishers, has confirmed it will withdraw the book from the market for "breach of trust".

Sunday Times reported over the weekend that Mashaba had funded The Outsider: The Unauthorised Biography of Herman Mashaba by political analyst Prince Mashele after an agreement between the two.

It has emerged that Mashaba undertook to pay Mashele R12.5m to fund the research of the book, in a secret arrangement they reached in 2019.

The publishing company, in a statement released on Monday night, said: "Following the disclosure that Herman Mashaba had funded the writing of a biography about him by Mashele, as confirmed by Mashaba in a media release, Jonathan Ball Publishers is left with no option but to withdraw The Outsider from the market.

"Jonathan Ball was unaware of any funding agreement between Mashele and Mashaba when we signed a publishing agreement with Mashele in 2022. We view this as a material non-disclosure on the part of the author and as a breach of trust.

The publisher also said the contract Mashaba quoted in his statement is from 2019 and is "not the contract signed between Mashele and Jonathan Ball".

ActionSA in a statement released on Monday essentially confirmed financing the book by Mashaba after it "became clear that raising the funds would be challenging". He said he financed the initial R12.5m in his personal capacity.

The party denied the book was an ActionSA project, saying that it came about during Mashaba's tenure as mayor of Joburg.

"The project involved a three-year in-depth research exercise into Mashaba's life. A plan to finance the book was presented by Mashele to Mashaba in October 2018 but when it became clear that raising the funds would be challenging, Mashaba agreed to provide the initial finance of R12.5 million in his personal capacity.

"A contract was signed in March 2019 which provided explicit editorial control of content to the author, Mashele. Mashaba was to provide access for interviews and was availed with manuscripts from time to time to comment on factual accuracy. Mashaba was forthcoming about his role in reviewing the manuscript for accuracy at the recent launch of the book.

"Financing a project does not provide editorial control of content which has been a surprising claim by some members of the media, whose publications are owned by private financial interests. Mashaba had no relationship with the publishers, Jonathan Ball Publishers, and this relationship was dealt with by Mashele as was determined in the contract since in March 2019. "

The party said Mashaba had no prior look at the book cover or the subheading but that instead, this was agreed between the publisher and Mashele.

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